No one likes to think about it but there will be a day when Stan Lee’s cameos will end. He may be an indefatigable 90-year-old but the co-creator of The Fantastic Four, Hulk and Spider-Man is still only human. But, in the upcoming Lego Marvel Super-Heroes video game, Stan Lee is pretty much omnipotent.
Over the last decade, it’s become customary to see Lee pop up in the movies and games featuring Marvel Universe characters. Last year, he web-swung through New York City as a playable character in The Amazing Spider-Man game. When the developers at Travelers’ Tales saw that, they decided that they damn well weren’t going to be outdone when they got their shot at putting the iconic wordsmith into Lego Marvel.
Game director Arthur Parsons—one of the folks who’ve made Lego games for the last decade or so—gave me a rundown of all the powers Stan Lee can use in the game and, yeah, you’d basically need the Ultimate Nullifier to take the Man down. The Stan character can essentially wield almost all of the abilities from the various powersets in the game. Here are most of them:
- Telekinesis
- Mind control
- Spider-sense
- Web swing
- Hulking out into a super-strong Big Figure
- Eye blasts (like Cyclops)
- Super-malleability (stretchy arms like Mr. Fantastic)
- Hacking computers like Bruce banner
- Magnetic powers like Magneto
Because he can web-swing, the Stan Lee character won’t be able to hover or fly but he will be able to teleport. And if that’s not enough, he’ll also have an adamantanium skeleton like Wolverine. If he gets blasted by an enemy attack, all you’ll be able to control is a set of tiny metal bones until he regenerates back to full Stan healthliness.
Put all that together and you get one hell of a tribute to Stanley Lieber. I’d hate to be whoever does Stan’s next cameo in a video game. You’d basically have to make him into Eternity. We’ll have more about Lego Marvel on Kotaku soon.